Thursday, December 24, 2015

5th Grade Islamic Tiles



The idea for this project came to me quite a few years ago when I had come across Ed Emberley's thumb print drawing book and loved it so much that I googled a few of his other works and came across his book "Picture Pie".




The book is a great tie in with a math lesson based on fractions. Originally for the project, I had children use circles they had traced from container lids that I saved and then cut them into fractions to create any kind of picture they wanted. However, the problem with such an open ended project is that some students really sore and some students really fall short.

After having reflected on the triumphs and shortcomings of the original project, I decided that the fractional pieces would be best used to create some kind of symmetrical design, and I immediately thought of Islamic tiles. Fast forward a few years later, and I have two extra fifth-grade classes this year that get an extra day of art every other week and figured this would be a great opportunity to try out my tile project.
Here are a few finished examples:







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